Monthly Archive for April, 2007

: April, 2007

The Sonics just announced that guard Ray Allen underwent successful surgery on both ankles Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles. The surgery was performed by Dr. Richard Ferkel, who removed bone spurs and loose bodies from each of Allen’s ankles at the guard’s request. …

It may very well be possible that Luke Ridnour played his last game for the Sonics on Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers. Ridnour will miss the rest of the season with a severely sprained ankle and it’s becoming apparent that the Sonics will have to address the point-guard situation because Ridnour and Earl Watson are not going to want to tolerate this two-headed situation for another season. …

X-rays revealed a left ankle sprain for Sonics guard Luke Ridnour and he will not return. He was hurt with 54 seconds left in the first quarter after landing awkwardly on his left foot after a layup attempt. …

Sonics coach Bob Hill said he is going to stick with Luke Ridnour as a starter for the remainder of the season in an attempt to get Ridnour’s confidence back and his play improved. But it’s becoming obvious that something will need to be done about the point guard situation this summer. Ridnour has four more years on his deal and Earl Watson has three and the two-headed point guard isn’t working effectively, especially if the Sonics want to make the playoffs next season. Hill said the future of the position will be addressed in the summer. …

The Sonics fought hard Wednesday without Chris Wilcox but failed to take advantage of a team that couldn’t hit a shot in the fourth quarter. It’s games such as these that tell why the Sonics are 30-45 and headed for the lottery. If a team scores six points in the fourth quarter, they are supposed to lose. But the Sonics couldn’t make easy layups down the stretch and had to force overtime on an Earl Watson shot with 2.3 seconds left. …

Well no one saw this coming. The Sonics got pounded yet again by a Spurs team that seemed to go through the motions and just wanted to make sure they didn’t get anyone hurt. No San Antonio player looked more than 28 minutes, hence no one scored more than Bruce Bowen’s 18 points. But efficiently, and almost cruelly, they put up 110 points on the Sonics without really exerting much effort. …

The Sonics are going to try to avoid getting blown out early against the Spurs, which has been the case in their previous three losses by an average of 30.6 points, even if that means Rashard Lewis had to get an early respect technical to keep the sometimes overaggressive Bruce Bowen off of his hip. Lewis has no problem arguing fouls, but the next step in his career will entail barking at an official and getting the next call. Lewis does not get to the free throw line as often as he should and he needs to change that in the coming years. …

The Sonics never really gave themselves a chance to win Sunday but they refused to rebound and played a step slow in a 114-103 loss to Denver. Sonics coach Bob Hill is treating Chris Wilcox with tough lose, calling his 20 points “irrelevant” because he added just four rebounds in 37 minutes, a disappointing sum for a 6-foot-10 player who pulled 22 10 days ago against Washington. …

Denver coach George Karl said the Nuggets are going to double-team Rashard Lewis more in tonight’s game than in Wednesday’s 100-97 Sonics win, putting the onus on someone else to beat them. This is a critical game for Denver, which was a playoff cinch until a few days ago. With Golden State’s 122-117 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday, the Nuggets enter tonight’s game 1 1/2 games ahead of the Warriors for the final playoff spot. …